Varuna Chétiya
I feel I share the desire to represent water elements through forms and motifs like the ancient-medieval artists and carvers of Nepal. In its tangible form, these motifs have been widely carved throughout medieval Nepal. They are carved as clouds in Torana (Tympanum) and Kirtimukha to represent the constantly renewing water cycle, from its flight in the skies amongst the deities and celestial bodies descending in curves to bless the fertile lands. These motifs further represent the waters flowing and shapeshifting in the form of clear rivers and hiding inside earth to emerge again as ground water, symbolized by Makara and the entities coming out of its mouth. Intangibly, the motifs have traveled through the early minds of Lichchhavi carvers as a collective aesthetic knowledge imagined in curvilinear patterns and figures. Today, these forms exist beautifully in the symbolic perceptions of the creator and in diverse physical mediums, depicting the grandeur of the water element.
The votive structure, Varuṇa Chétiya is a chronological recollection of the water iconography carved through the early Lichchhavi period in Nepal. In its clockwise circumambulation niches of the Chétiya are adorned with Hamsa (Swans representing breath and the primordial source of water), Simha (Lion representing the active movement of water), Makara (Mythical water beings associated to the ground water channels) and Kinnara (Mythical water spirits that are the guardians of waterbodies in different forms).
The votive structure, Varuṇa Chétiya is a chronological recollection of the water iconography carved through the early Lichchhavi period in Nepal. In its clockwise circumambulation niches of the Chétiya are adorned with Hamsa (Swans representing breath and the primordial source of water), Simha (Lion representing the active movement of water), Makara (Mythical water beings associated to the ground water channels) and Kinnara (Mythical water spirits that are the guardians of waterbodies in different forms).